At a recent “GMs meeting” someone posed this question: What do you do if you’ve allowed a player to acquire something that way overbalances the campaign?
First I have to say, I have not done this (or if I did I’ve repressed something that happened long ago, and it worked itself out). Second, this reminds me of the GMs who say their players’ characters are so tough they cannot be killed. What? There are innumerable ways to kill a character, right down to a meteor in the head! But for GMs who'd rather be a little more subtle in dealing with an overpowered character, here's some tips to address the problem.
Reason with the Player(s)
My #1 recommendation: take the player aside and talk with him/her about it. Offer some compensation for the removal of the item or ability. For example, offer a couple other limited use items.
Another possibility is to point out how the character will be a “marked man (or woman)” if they’re known to have this item that “everyone” will want, and there are ALWAYS tougher people than you around. So get rid of it before it gets you killed! If that doesn’t work, then you could actually pursue that “marked for death” scenario.
A long time ago I founded a campaign where everyone was encouraged to learn to GM and where everyone had a pool of characters that he/she could use with any of the group GMs. One time we had a freshman GM who wanted everyone to be happy and gave away far too much treasure, including the dreaded Deck of Many Things. There's nothing inherently wrong with artifacts like this, but they can drastically alter a campaign and shouldn't be used lightly. Another grad student and I (yes, we’d both been players) stepped outside, talked for a while, went back in and waved away many of the treasures to help keep the joint campaign in balance. That worked well.
Theft
Why not have some NPC (or more likely a group of them) steal whatever causes the imbalance? It needn’t be characters as tough as the player characters, if the item is left on its own somewhere.
On the other hand, there’s an unspoken pact in many RPG campaigns that the characters can leave stuff behind when adventuring and it won’t be stolen. (This doesn’t prevent me from devising schemes to protect my characters’ stuff in this situation.) The problem with this approach is that the player might feel unfairly treated because his item is stolen, but no one else’s.
What about storing the item in a “bank”? This has the same problem as “magic shops”: it’s a big target for big-time thieves (who may be of any character class, but are a lot tougher than the PC in question). After all, why risk your life in a dungeon when you can carefully plan a foray against a bank or magic shop? (“Why do you rob banks? Answer: ‘Cause that’s where the money is.”)
If It Isn’t an Item?
Some things can’t be stolen. For example, it might be some power or capability the character has acquired that is simply part of him and is now inherent. That makes a GM's task much harder.
Perhaps someone hits the character with a spell that nullifies the power, or the character is captured and the power is removed by some ritual. But then, why isn’t the character killed? Some weird cult that guards against whatever the power is?
It might be worth establishing a rule for your GMing, “don’t let characters permanently acquire overpowered capabilities.”
Retirement
Another approach might be to work with the player to retire the PC by turning them into an NPC. There are plenty of reasons for why the character may leave the campaign. For example the character is recruited to join the bodyguards of his/her god. Nope, no adventures here, bubba. Retired.
I'm sure you can come up with other possibilities.
Corollary
What if you accept a character from another campaign who has something overpowered? The easy answer is to not let that item into the game. But if you already have, you’re in the same boat, except that the player might be annoyed that you let the item into the campaign with the item then changed your mind.
From a game design perspective, magic items would ideally be balanced enough so that these sorts of situations don't happen. But in a world of high fantasy or advanced science, this is no easy task.
The challenge in addressing power imbalances in your campaign is making adjustments without upsetting your player so much that they don't want to play. But the best way is to not let it happen in the first place!
Your turn: What are your clever (diabolical?) ways to solve this problem?
First I have to say, I have not done this (or if I did I’ve repressed something that happened long ago, and it worked itself out). Second, this reminds me of the GMs who say their players’ characters are so tough they cannot be killed. What? There are innumerable ways to kill a character, right down to a meteor in the head! But for GMs who'd rather be a little more subtle in dealing with an overpowered character, here's some tips to address the problem.
Reason with the Player(s)
My #1 recommendation: take the player aside and talk with him/her about it. Offer some compensation for the removal of the item or ability. For example, offer a couple other limited use items.
Another possibility is to point out how the character will be a “marked man (or woman)” if they’re known to have this item that “everyone” will want, and there are ALWAYS tougher people than you around. So get rid of it before it gets you killed! If that doesn’t work, then you could actually pursue that “marked for death” scenario.
A long time ago I founded a campaign where everyone was encouraged to learn to GM and where everyone had a pool of characters that he/she could use with any of the group GMs. One time we had a freshman GM who wanted everyone to be happy and gave away far too much treasure, including the dreaded Deck of Many Things. There's nothing inherently wrong with artifacts like this, but they can drastically alter a campaign and shouldn't be used lightly. Another grad student and I (yes, we’d both been players) stepped outside, talked for a while, went back in and waved away many of the treasures to help keep the joint campaign in balance. That worked well.
Theft
Why not have some NPC (or more likely a group of them) steal whatever causes the imbalance? It needn’t be characters as tough as the player characters, if the item is left on its own somewhere.
On the other hand, there’s an unspoken pact in many RPG campaigns that the characters can leave stuff behind when adventuring and it won’t be stolen. (This doesn’t prevent me from devising schemes to protect my characters’ stuff in this situation.) The problem with this approach is that the player might feel unfairly treated because his item is stolen, but no one else’s.
What about storing the item in a “bank”? This has the same problem as “magic shops”: it’s a big target for big-time thieves (who may be of any character class, but are a lot tougher than the PC in question). After all, why risk your life in a dungeon when you can carefully plan a foray against a bank or magic shop? (“Why do you rob banks? Answer: ‘Cause that’s where the money is.”)
If It Isn’t an Item?
Some things can’t be stolen. For example, it might be some power or capability the character has acquired that is simply part of him and is now inherent. That makes a GM's task much harder.
Perhaps someone hits the character with a spell that nullifies the power, or the character is captured and the power is removed by some ritual. But then, why isn’t the character killed? Some weird cult that guards against whatever the power is?
It might be worth establishing a rule for your GMing, “don’t let characters permanently acquire overpowered capabilities.”
Retirement
Another approach might be to work with the player to retire the PC by turning them into an NPC. There are plenty of reasons for why the character may leave the campaign. For example the character is recruited to join the bodyguards of his/her god. Nope, no adventures here, bubba. Retired.
I'm sure you can come up with other possibilities.
Corollary
What if you accept a character from another campaign who has something overpowered? The easy answer is to not let that item into the game. But if you already have, you’re in the same boat, except that the player might be annoyed that you let the item into the campaign with the item then changed your mind.
From a game design perspective, magic items would ideally be balanced enough so that these sorts of situations don't happen. But in a world of high fantasy or advanced science, this is no easy task.
The challenge in addressing power imbalances in your campaign is making adjustments without upsetting your player so much that they don't want to play. But the best way is to not let it happen in the first place!
Your turn: What are your clever (diabolical?) ways to solve this problem?